Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, and African Americans will soon be half of the US population. These cultural groups tend to preserve key elements of their ancestral cultures. Marketing in culture to these important groups is like marketing to other groups, except that one must understand their culture. Cultural understanding in marketing is a growing branch in the study of consumer behavior.

7 comments:

Agreed. There are many different Spanish speaking Countries that are all different from eachother. I think companies try to group all of them into one campaign based on a superficial commonality and it comes out looking stereotypical. I think this is why they look at advertisements skeptically and don't feel like they are truly understood. With that said, the campaigns that actually find a significant cultural common ground without stereotyping are highly successful in my opinion.

I think that marketing "in culture" is a unique aspect of marketing to Latinos. We share a culture to varying degrees and there are some common denominators that can become important emotional handles.

I agree that there are some common denominators; I just don't think companies take the time, effort, or money needed to uncover these and instead fall short with something the ends up being stereotypical. Also, I think it is more than Hispanics being Early Adoptors in reference to technology and social media. They are influencers, especially the younger generations, in more areas than just the social media and technology.

I agree that "culture" plays a critical role. What's key though is understanding the target audience well enough to 1) know when to dial up or down "culture" in the marketing efforts and 2) know what "culture" to focus in on.

For example - for some categories, urban cultural cues may be the unifying elements that engages a community (be they Hispanic, Asian, etc.), while for other categories, ethnic cues (values, icons, etc.) may be more relevant in terms of connecting with a group.

Marketing to Hispanics makes us actually consider culture, whereas in marketing in general, it doesn't seem like culture is considered. This is probably because when marketing to the general population in the U.S., marketers live the culture of the people they're trying to target, so maybe it seems to them that the marketing should come naturally. As I've been learning though, this is not always the case. Hispanic marketing shines a light on this point, that we must consider the values and insights of culture before marketing to anyone.

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All Marketing is Cultural

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Hispanic and Multicultural Marketing Research and Analysis

I have been a market researcher and marketing consultant dedicated to the Latino market since the early 1980's. I have seen the fast growth of the Hispanic market from about 10 million people in 1980 to over 50 million now. I have also witnessed the evolution of the relationship between Latinos and technology. Hispanics have been quick at adopting new communication technologies to enhance their cultural roots and behaviors.